The War of Gods (A Welcome to the Underworld Novel, Book 3) (34 page)

“I’ve missed you, little one,” he murmured, resting his chin on her head. When he did this, Yoori felt her heart ache at his breaking voice. “I know that you don’t remember anything right now, but the only thing you should know is that I love you.” He inhaled sharply, his eyes glistening with tears. “I thought you died in that fire. I thought I lost you
. . .
” He held her tighter against him, painfully closing his eyes. “I’ve missed you so much.”

“I’ve missed you too,” Yoori uttered, truly meaning it. She returned the embrace with the same intensity. She wasn’t certain if it was her own emotions or if it was Soo Jin’s emotions fighting through, but she could feel the adoration she had for her brother. Though she couldn’t remember, she could also feel the lifetime of memories they had while growing up together.

Anticipation submerged her while they hugged. She was finally in the presence of the one who could enlighten her. She was finally in the company of the one who could shine a light on all the mysteries that shrouded her past.

Yoori couldn’t resist the temptation to finally uncover the secrets of her life.

“Why did you leave for three years?” she asked, slowly pulling out of the embrace. She peered up at him with curious eyes. A string of other questions escaped her lips. “Why did Soo Jin want to commit suicide? What happened in that club? I knew you were there with her. What happened?”

Despite his sigh, she saw in his gaze that he anticipated these questions from her. The unshed tears from his eyes started to dry under the cool night. “Wasn’t it just moments ago that you were determined to not remember anything?”

“I don’t want to remember, but that doesn’t mean I’m not curious.”

Yoori chewed on her lips, staring at him pleadingly. She shouldn’t tempt herself with the forbidden fruit, yet it was so enticing. She fought between keeping herself in the dark and stepping into the light. Her curiosity soon won out. She knew that out of all the people who could shed some light on this (and protect her at the same time), it was Young Jae.

“That formula that Ji Hoon gave me, the one I gave you to ‘kill’ me with,” she prompted. “It gives me dreams
. . .
dreams that I don’t know are memories, scrambled memories, or just figments of my imagination. I’m alive, yet in the dark. I’m stuck between wanting to freeze my life as it is and wanting to know what happened to me.” She bit her lips harder. “What happened in that club is the key to everything, and I need to know what brought me to this moment in time. That’s all I want to know. I don’t want to remember anything else.”

“You wanted to end your life because of what happened that night. I know I was angry earlier and spoke about wanting to help you remember so that you would leave Tae Hyun, but I can’t risk you going back to the way that you were. I can’t risk you wanting to kill yourself again. What happened that night will be your trigger to remember.” He shook his head. “I don’t want you to relive any of that pain. You came from hell and back—
literally. I won’t be your trigger. I won’t.”

“Will you do what you can then?” she bartered desperately. “Without recounting anything that you feel may be a trigger? I just need to know why that family was chosen, why I killed those people, and if possible, why we were there in the first place.”

“You’re playing with fire right now, lil sis.”

“Hwang Hee Jun,” Yoori launched, knowing that the names would be the pendulum that would sway her brother in the direction she wanted him to go in. “It was Hwang Hee Jun’s family that was there. All thirty-four of them. I have to know why.”

A flash of emotion elicited from his eyes.

“No one but Soo Jin, myself, and a couple of Scorpions would know that information. How did you know?”

“Please tell me something, and I’ll tell you how I know.” She could see in his eyes that knowing who told her wasn’t as important as keeping her in the dark. Anticipating his hesitation, she hastened to add, “I need to know who I killed
. . .
and why I killed them. They haunt me every single day. They make me hate myself even if I can’t remember what Soo Jin did to them. They make me hate Soo Jin. Despite all the remorse she felt at the end, I still can’t help but hate her because I can still
feel
her guilt.” Yoori took in a deep, preparatory breath. The hardest person to forgive is always yourself. “I want to close a chapter in my life so I can move on.” She bit her quivering lips, her eyes pleading. “Please oppa
. . .
give me something.”

Young Jae considered her request for a few seconds. When Yoori saw the surrender in his eyes, she knew he had given in. She was elated
, for she knew from this moment forth, there would be no more hearsay, no more assumptions.

For the first time, she was going to get a first-hand account on what
really took place at the infamous “Club Massacre.”

“If you are weak, then you are not fit to be a Royal
.”

13: Blood Secrets of the Siberian Tigers

“We were interrogating them to find Hwang Tony,” Young Jae disclosed after a long moment of silence.

“Hwang Tony?” Yoori confirmed, grateful that her brother finally heeded her request. Her heart rate gathered speed at this information.

“The last remaining heir to the Siberian Tigers’ gang,” Young Jae explained solemnly. “Hwang Hee Jun’s younger brother.”

Yoori canted her head with intrigue. “Wasn’t he killed when you exterminated the gang five years ago?”

The trees in the garden rustled when a cold breeze flew through them. He shook his head.

“We thought he was killed, but he survived. I was told that he spent two years recuperating after the attack. It wasn’t until an informant of mine caught sight of him in Seoul was I made aware of his existence. I didn’t like that he was alive. Word had already gotten out that I had exterminated an entire lineage. His existence threatened that belief. I didn’t care if the gang was already broken. I knew I had to kill the last remaining heir.”

A muscle worked in his jaw when he recalled what transpired three years ago.

“Word got around to Tony that I was looking for him, and he fled. While we were searching for him, we found out that there was an extended family that existed and had been in hiding. Determined to find Tony, I had several Scorpions kidnap them and bring them over to the club I had just purchased. The area was completely secluded and perfect for what we needed to do.”

Yoori did not need to ask who the main Scorpion that led the abduction was. She did her best to swallow past the remorse and dread that boiled in her stomach.

Slowly, she said, “The plan all along was to kill the entire family after we found out the information?”

Young Jae nodded, watching her warily. He was careful with making sure she could handle what was being told. “The only ones I was willing to even entertain sparing were the mother and her twins. Out of the extended family members, they were the only ones purely unrelated by blood, and they were the only ones I cared to take pity on.”

“But An Soo Jin was the one who handled them?”

Young Jae looked up at the moon as his confirmation. “In the nature of interrogations, I handed things over to Soo Jin because as my right hand, she was known as the enforcer and the interrogator. Soo Jin’s reputation in the Underworld had always been a vicious one, which was for good reason because it had always helped her in procuring the information we needed. Her favorite form of interrogation, and one of the most effective ones, was to cut off fingers each time they refused to give her the answers she wanted. Apart from the twins and their mother, all thirty-one people were tortured as we pried for information on Tony’s whereabouts.” He stared at her worriedly. He assessed the fear that bubbled in her eyes. “Is this too much for you to hear?”

Yes
, she answered in her mind.

“No,” Yoori lied, fighting back the rising nausea she felt. She was finally given a flashlight for the darkness she lived in. She refused to let this opportunity pass her by. She would deal with the guilt later. Now was the time for enlightenment.

“So, the family was killed,” she prompted as her way of telling Young Jae to continue with the story, “just to find out where Hwang Tony was?”

Young Jae nodded, finally confirming Yoori’s suspicions that Young Jae knew about Ju Won’s request. “That night, we had two things we were interrogating them for. We found out Tony’s whereabouts after Soo Jin shot and killed sixteen of the family members. After that, we were trying to find out something else
. . .
something else for Ju Won.”

An uneasy feeling twisted inside Yoori. She knew it was the Soo Jin in her recalling the familiarity of these words and the scene Young Jae was about to paint for her.

“Why were you guys helping him?”

Young Jae had a faraway look in his eyes as he recounted memories from a distant past. He continued to speak,
finally shedding light on to a mystery that had eluded Yoori for so long. He finally told her what happened during the fateful “Club Massacre.”

■
■
■

Three years ago
. . .

“I don’t trust him,” Young Jae whispered as they stood on the balcony.

His eyes roamed over the dimly lit floor that was covered with writhing bodies. The people below had been beaten so viciously that their faces were barely
recognizable. The floor was littered with blood, amputated fingers, torn flesh, and the stench of death. They had just killed sixteen of the stubborn family members and had found Tony’s whereabouts. In spite of this success, they had no luck in procuring the information Ju Won requested from them.

The remaining family members groaning on the dance floor were either good at keeping secrets or they simply didn’t know what the hell Young Jae and Soo Jin were talking about. Young Jae was betting on the latter as he lowered his gaze to his sister.

“What could it hurt if we continued to torture them?” his baby sister suggested beside him.

Splatters of blood tarnished the black jacket and jeans she wore. With her black hair tied up in a ponytail, her hand holding a bloodied knife, and her face void of remorse, Soo Jin was the epitome of the Underworld’s best interrogator. She had the face of an angel and the moral flexibility of the Devil. Those who didn’t know her would come to fear her, and those who feared her would never forget her. She was the very best right-hand soldier and the best person to force out information from these people—that was if they knew the information to begin with. 

“Nothing matters anymore,” she went on, her voice as cold as her emotionless face. “The moment they stepped foot in here, they were going to die anyway. Why not try to find out something for Ju Won while we’re at it?”

“You trust him too much, lil sis,” Young Jae said severely. “Ju Won is a snake and the worst possible kind. Nothing he offers you should be taken lightly.”

“He’s offering our family his empire, oppa,” Soo Jin argued, still sounding respectful despite her raised voice. “You know the pendulum of power that comes with that exchange.”

Soo Jin looked down at the scene below her.

Resolve overcame her.

“The Serpents are becoming stronger. Kwon Ho Young not only has the support of China’s Underworld, but he also has a trump card—his younger brother. His brother is on his way to ruling over the 1
st
layer. You know how influential that layer is when the Corporate Crime Lords are united. If we don’t move Ju Won over to our side, then all the power will shift to the Serpents. Is that what you want? For this world to kneel under the rule of the Serpents? The fuckers who murdered our father?”

There was judgment in her eyes that she gave away for a split second. It was a look that insinuated Young Jae did not care about their father’s death as much as she did.

“Don’t speak to me as if our father’s death affected you more than it affected me,” Young Jae warned, reading her mind. “You have no idea what I’m going through.”

Soo Jin bowed her head in apology. “I’m sorry. You know how much I hate them whenever I think about our father.” She softened her gaze, her eyes imploring him to see her logic. “Our world is changing, oppa. The three gangs are growing stronger and stronger everyday, but there’s a shifting of power now. Pretty soon, once things are in order, there will only be one Lord of the Underworld to rule over this entire layer and the two layers above it. I can’t stand here and allow the Serpents to have that power, especially when all we have to do is find out whatever it is Ju Won wants from the family below.”

Her eyes narrowed on to the floor where the unharmed mother and twins sat huddled in the corner, their faces paled from horror. The mother wore a yellow sundress, and the twins wore yellow t-shirts and khaki shorts; they looked utterly out of place in such a monstrous scene.

“You’re not touching them, Soo Jin,” Young Jae commanded, following her gaze.